409 research outputs found
Meeting the evil god challenge
The evil god challenge is an argumentative strategy that has been pursued by a number of philosophers in recent years. It is apt to be understood as a parody argument: a wholly evil, omnipotent, and omniscient God is absurd, as both theists and atheists will agree. But according to the challenge, belief in evil God is about as reasonable as belief in a wholly good, omnipotent, and omniscient God; the two hypotheses are roughly epistemically symmetrical. Given this symmetry thesis belief in an evil god and belief in a good god are taken to be similarly preposterous. In this paper we argue that the challenge can be met, suggesting why the three symmetries that need to hold between evil God and good God – intrinsic, natural theology and theodicy symmetries – can all be broken. As such, we take it that the evil God challenge can be met
Dedication of the Palomar Observatory and the Hale Telescope
The dedication of the Palomar Observatory, if it were being held in England, would be accompanied by brilliant pageantry both of the state, with its knights, heralds, pursuivants, kings at arms, admirals and captains, and of the church with its bishops, priests and deacons, crucifiers and choirs; and I am sure that we feel the quality of religion in this ceremony. We would hear the choirs chanting in antiphony that great canticle which so delights the choir boys: Benedicite, omnia opera Domini
Mapping the CMB III: combined analysis of QMAP flights
We present results from the QMAP balloon experiment, which maps the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) and probes its angular power spectrum on degree
scales. In two separate flights, data were taken in six channels at two
frequency bands between 26 to 46 GHz. We describe our method for mapmaking
(removal of 1/f-noise and scan-synchronous offsets) and power spectrum
estimation, as well as the results of a joint analysis of the data from both
flights. This produces a 527 square degree map of the CMB around the North
Celestial Pole, allowing a wide variety of systematic cross-checks. The
frequency dependence of the fluctuations is consistent with CMB and
inconsistent with Galactic foreground emission. The anisotropy is measured in
three multipole bands from l~40 to l~200, and the angular power spectrum shows
a distinct rise which is consistent with the Saskatoon results.Comment: 4 pages, with 3 figures included. Submitted to ApJL. Window functions
are available at http://pupgg.princeton.edu/~cmb/welcome.html and color
figures and links at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~angelica/skymap.html#qma
Galactic emission at 19 GHz
We cross-correlate a 19 GHz full sky Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) survey
with other maps to quantify the foreground contribution. Correlations are
detected with the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) 240, 140 and
100 micron maps at high latitudes (|b|>30degrees), and marginal correlations
are detected with the Haslam 408 MHz and the Reich & Reich 1420 MHz synchrotron
maps. The former agree well with extrapolations from higher frequencies probed
by the COBE DMR and Saskatoon experiments and are consistent with both
free-free and rotating dust grain emission.Comment: 4 pages, with 4 figures included. Accepted for publication in ApJL.
Color figure and links at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~angelica/foreground.html#19
or from [email protected]
Mapping the CMB I: the first flight of the QMAP experiment
We report on the first flight of the balloon-borne QMAP experiment. The
experiment is designed to make a map of the cosmic microwave background
anisotropy on angular scales from 0.7 to several degrees. Using the map we
determine the angular power spectrum of the anisotropy in multipole bands from
l~40 to l~140. The results are consistent with the Saskatoon (SK) measurements.
The frequency spectral index (measured at low l) is consistent with that of CMB
and inconsistent with either Galactic synchrotron or free-free emission. The
instrument, measurement, analysis of the angular power spectrum, and possible
systematic errors are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, with 5 figures included. Submitted to ApJL. Window functions
and color figures are available at
http://pupgg.princeton.edu/~cmb/welcome.htm
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